I’ve been trying to figure out how popular handguns are in Perinton, with web research. I found that the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office completed 629 pistol permit background checks in 2007. That’s a little more than 1 per thousand people in the county, and that would average out to a little under 50 for Perinton. That’s only a guess; it’s possible that pistol rates are higher or lower in the different towns, but I’m guessing that the differences between towns are not extreme.

Every pistol permit does not equate to a gun, but then again, some permit holders will own multiple guns. All in all, the permit process is not easy, so I wouldn’t think that a lot of people go through it without the intention of eventually owning a pistol.

This means that Perinton could be welcoming 50 pistols per year. The size of the town is about 34 square miles. To continue with my gross estimates, that’s a new pistol per square mile every year. A square mile is pretty big, but a lot of that is green space, so I don’t think it’s outrageous to suggest that a pistol is added to your “neighborhood” every year or two.

A former Perinton “man” was recently sentenced to 47 years in prison for repeatedly sexually assaulting a female relative for approximately two years. He will not be eligible for parole for 40 years, which will make him 80, if he lives that long.

Now most of you know that I look for the positive things that make our community great. But that does not mean that I will not tackle tings that are unpleasant, negative or in this case heinous. The D&C shut down the comments section on this article as they often have to due to the unwashed masses and their inability to comment without making lame attempts at humor, bringing race, geographic location or other unrelated topics into their comments.

My purpose in posting this blog is not to open up a discussion strictly about this case. It is to bring up the topic of abuse; sexual, physical or emotional and to encourage all of my (“isolated suburbanites”, “SUV driving soccer moms”, “anti-city elitist suburbanites”) readers and friends to think about the topic of abuse for a few minutes. You probably know someone who is being abused but is doing a good job of hiding it. You may even know someone who you think is being abused but you don’t want to pry. You may know someone that you are certain is being abused, or you yourself are a victim of abuse. I think I am talking to everyone here.

Abuse happens in all socio-economic strata, it happens in the inner cities as well as the affluent suburbs. It has happened since before any of us were born and unfortunately will continue to occur long after we all die.

SO, WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?

If you think someone you know is being abused just ask them how they are doing. Sometimes they are looking to open up to someone. If you give them the opportunity they may take you up on it. If you know someone is being abused, confront them gently. Let them know that you are there to help. Sure they may deny that they are being abused and it may damage your relationship with them but better that than the guilt that might feel if something tragic were to occur..

If you are being abused, tell someone. If they don’t believe you, tell someone else. There is help available, Check the links below.

And if you are an abuser: GET HELP. There are people out there who can help you. And when confronted with your deeds, stand up and be a Man/Woman and admit what you have done. The damage caused to the victims by your denials is almost as damaging as the abuse itself.

I am open to this post being used as a discussion point, a place you can post additional resources or just vent about this topic. I for one do not walk around with blinders on, thinking the only place these things happen is “in the city” or “in poor households” or “in trailer parks”.

Getting this topic posted and discussed is just one thing I want to try to do to make my little corner of the world a little better place.

Oh and HUGE kudos to the young lady who stood up for herself and testified. What she did took courage and a tremendous amount of confidence in herself and her family. Even though she remains anonymous she is a role model to many.

A female hotel guest calls the front desk to complain that a loud marching band is playing outside, and the vibrations knocked her right out of bed. The clerk can’t believe it, so he goes to the room. The woman tells the clerk to get in bed with her to see for himself. Just then her husband walks in and asks why the clerk is in bed with his wife. The clerk asnswers, “Would you believe we’re waiting for a parade?”

And a parade it was in Fairport on Monday, Memorial Day. OK, so we’re not exactly a melting pot in Fairport. We’re pretty homogenous with our war memorial and our fire trucks and our FD band. But we’ve got a female chief of police, the first in Monroe County.

To top it all off, we shop on Memorial Day. But we appreciate the sacrifices that make life so good.

Like it or not (since I’m losing two days’ pay), I begin today a four-day holiday weekend, and the weather is majorly cool. I mean, warm. The summer season has arrived in Perinton, so let’s see if I can write something that a million tweets haven’t already covered today.

Rancho Garyo

The sounds of summer are here. I’m pretty sure I heard a lawnmower this Friday morning at about 8:30, and I’m sure that noise will be with us constantly through Monday. At some point, the noise will come from my own Rancho Garyo, so I’m not saying I don’t contribute to that. But I blog, therefore I whine.

OK, enough with the whining. On the local front, Fairport High School will begin its summer with a new principal, Christopher Salinas. Parents and community members are invited to meet him at an open reception on June 11 from 4:00-5:30 PM in the FHS library.

The beginning of the end of the weekend is marked by Monday’s Memorial Day parade in the village of Fairport, beginning on the north side at 10 am and concluding appropriately at the Potter Memorial Park. Honor the sacrifices, enjoy the weather and watch for me on Monday.

Almost 2800 district residents voted yesterday and approved the School District and Library Budgets for 2009-2010. The propositions for spending reserve money for the purchase of school buses and technology upgrades were also approved.

In the School Board race Tom McJury, Kellie Scott-Reed and Bob Beckwith were the top three vote getters, Tom and Kellie will serve 3 year terms and Bob will serve a 2 year term. Notice I did not use the terms winners/losers. The district would have been well served by any of these 5 candidates.

If you see any of these folks in the next few days give them a great big thank you.

OK, so there are less than 3 weeks to one of my favorite weekends of the year and I have not talked about it yet. That’s right Canal Days. Always held the first full weekend in June, this year it will run from Friday night June 5th through Sunday June 7th.

As usual Friday night kicks off with the chicken BBQ at 4:30 PM at Fairport Junction off Liftbridge Lane. Gap Mangione and His Big Band will also play at the Fairport Junction, liely starting at 6 PM.

What is missing this year is the fireworks display at dusk. Now lots of you will be disappointed by this news, I was at first. Then I got to thinking about how this has grown over the years and how crowded the Village was last year and it makes sense to me. You could not walk on the sidewalk and I was recently told that some folks were parked on/near and viewing the fireworks from the RR tracks. All potential safety issues, Now I do not think of myself as a Scrooge or a Caper Milquetoast but when you have 10-11 year-olds wandering around unattended and people packed into a small area like sardines it has some potential for a bad outcome. And those who completely disregard their safety by using the RR tracks and adjacent land as a parking lot or viewing area well what choice do the organizers have.

The lack of fireworks will not detract from the fun that I usually have all weekend. One of the beautiful things about living in the Village is I can walk in spend some time wandering around and head home for an hour or two before I head back in for a few more hours. I will likely put up another post the week of Canal Days. If you have anything you want me to post, drop me a line: bandanaman61@gmail.com

That thundering noise on Friday evening east of Fairport HS was my wife and friends, cranking “Mamma Mia” in Blu-Ray, and not just through the TV speakers, but through the stereo receiver. A fun movie, I suppose, but, “By women, about women, for women.”

By the way, the Perinton Historical Society has launched a new web site:

As I sifted through my notes from the Meet the Candidates meeting and the e-mails from the candidates I came to a few conclusions. One of those is that we are a lucky bunch in the Fairport School District. We have 5 candidates who not only want to run for the School Board but also bring qualifications to the table. To date I have received e-mails from 4 of the candidates, two of those I have also spoken to in person. So maybe it is safe to say that 4 of 5 School Board candidates read the Fairport/Perinton Blog.

As promised I will share portions of those e-mails and conversations and also add in some of the answers to the questions from the meeting last week. If there are quote marks around a statement it is directly from the e-mail I received. I have decided to list the candidates alphabetically so as to not appear to be giving anyone a more favorable position in the blog.

******************

Robert Beckwith.

Bob and I spend some time talking after the meeting last week. We talked about some of the questions posed. Bob said that we should be looking to be more efficient in how money is spent and that in a budget slightly over 100 million dollars there are still areas that can be curtailed. With declining enrollment there should be a flattening or decrease in some budgetary areas. We also talked about the Facilities vote a few years back and how that was poorly handled. Bob said that voters should be able to vote on individual funding issues not on a proposal that forces you to vote yes based on your desire to pass one piece of the puzzle or no because you think a portion of the proposal is excessive. When asked what shaped him as a person he gave a rather candid answer. He had an evaluation early in his career that was sub par. He then realized that he was not giving full effort and that he would have to work hard to see the payoff. He sees a parallel to working on the school board. Hard work will pay off.

Bob sent this to me today (Sunday 5/17) and I think it raises some issues that we will have to deal with in the very near future:

“I attended the luncheon on May 14 when Tom Golisano, a lifelong resident, businessman and upstate New York supporter, announced his decision to make Florida his primary state of residence. Why his decision? He explained that the tax burden in New York, upstate in particular, had become too much to bear. Mr. Golisano has worked diligently over the last decade to change the trend of increasing taxes in New York, but to no avail. He has decided that he will not pay unreasonably high taxes any longer and is taking his earning power and the taxes that it generates to Florida.

Mr. Golisano will not be the only one to make such a move. We cannot continue along this path. We need to have responsible spending and reasonable taxes. I have two children in the Fairport school system and their education is of the utmost importance to me. I believe that any organization, however, has spending that can be reduced without reducing the quality of the product or service it provides. In difficult times, spending must be reduced. I firmly believe that we can maintain the high educational standards that we demand for our kids and reduce the cost of that education to the taxpayer.”

**********************

Denise Dragoone.

Ms Dragoone was well prepared the night of the meeting. Her answers were well thought out and showed her business background. She spoke about looking for a return on investment, being an attentive listener and when the topic of articles that rank schools was brought up she offered what I thought was the best answer. Understand the trend but don’t overreact to it. Her most influential person is her grandmother who told her, Don’t forget where you came from. My kind of advice.

*******************

Tom McJury.

Tom and I also spoke before and after the meeting. The last name McJury was known in my house before I met Tom since we both have children graduating from FHS this year and they were classmates since sixth grade.
“I’d be proud to sit at the board of education table with ANY of those folks, and that’s the first time I can ever say that about a school board election.

To answer your question, I need to share my personal perspective.

We want to launch exceptional individuals from Fairport, unleashing them on the rest of the world. This requires contributions from the community and the schools.

Community
We’ve got an absolutely incredible community, with great and caring government at the town and the village level, and I’m not blowing smoke. Jim Smith is a great guy and a “local.” Fritz is a former teacher who knows the value of education. So – as far as caring/character – I
think we’ve generally got that down…

We also have a community that values education. Since 1972, we have had three budgets voted down, a 92% success rate, with one of the three defeats by a mere 77 votes. The is a combination of community values and effective planning.

Schools
The success of our school programs is well documented, with the number of merit scholars, music & theater programs, and athletic success.

“Can you please repeat the question?” Wait, I remember…

Here’s the uniqueness that I feel I possess:

Having been a teacher in an urban setting as well as two different types of suburban settings, I gained valuable insight regarding the instructional nature of education (and, of course, I spent 4 years in college preparing for it).

I have been married for almost 23 years to a special education teacher. We can talk all we want about the success of our scholars, but we need to focus on those that truly need our support and services…(this was
one of the driving issues behind the Success Summit – ALL kids, ALL the time). The last quarter century spent with my special education soulmate has given me a passion in this area.

Finally, experience, experience, experience. It took a good 18 months to finally understand all the dynamics and intricacies of school administration, and keep in mind that I have a teaching degree and teaching experience! I believe we have done an excellent job the past three years in recovering from the $78M facility debacle (before me)with strong and approved plans, have maintained and even improved our curricular programs, have approved a three-year teacher contract with DESCENDING salary increases over the three years (never happened before) and ASCENDING contributions to health care (never happened before either), and put forth three budgets with tax rate changes of 2.2%, 1.0%, and (-1.5%). Furthermore, our district credit rating is AAA, which allows us to borrow more cheaply.”

*********************

Curt Moczarski.

“Instead of commenting on qualities other candidates may or may not have, let me expand on the qualities I have that I believe will make me a good fit for this position.

Dedication, commitment and a strong desire to be involved. These are more than words or catch phrases to me – they are instead defining characteristics. They are also visible in my actions and the roles I have played since my children started going to school. A prime example is when I went to my first PTA meeting. It was the June before my daughter was to start kindergarten. The new parents were invited to attend the last session of the current year. I went to that meeting as a parent of an incoming kindergartner and came home as the Vice President. Since then I have been involved and volunteered to help with the leadership of the PTA, the school and the district at every opportunity. I was part of the interviewing committee for the Dudley Principal and just last week I participated in the interview forum for the Fairport High School Principal. Last year when the board needed someone to step up and fill the vacancy left when Dr. DiRisio resigned, I was a candidate. This year, I’m running as a candidate as I feel it is the natural “next step”.

Another strength I believe I have is a need to question and understand how and why things are done – not just to accept the status quo or “that’s the way we’ve always done it”. As a project manager and leader in the business world, I’m constantly trying to understand the current process in order to look for improvements in efficiency, reduce cost, etc. Good examples of this can be seen in what the Executive board has been able to implement in my 2 terms as President of the Dudley PTA:
Smaller and more focused executive board. Eliminated “co” roles for president, vice president and secretary. Provided well defined and documented roles for each in order to make transition smoother.

Implemented a 2-yr /2 person commitment in the role of Treasurer. That way the incoming treasurer spends the first year working side by side with the outgoing treasurer.

Implementing new programs such as: the Principal’s Fund and the Dudley Wish List.”

********************

Kellie Scott-Reed

“I believe a quality school district raises quality of life of its residents of all ages and income levels. And the Fairport School District holds true to values I feel are very important. Diversity is celebrated, the individual learners are nurtured, and the environment is safe. There is a partnership between community, parents and teachers. Fairport has a progressive special education program, a stellar reputation in its sports, music, and arts programs, and an all inclusive learning environment that educates the whole student, all while maintaining a low cost per student.

I feel I am good choice for the board because I have the time to invest. I will be able to devote time to understanding an issue and making a quality decision. We are currently dealing with hard economic times. My experience has provided me with a deepened appreciation for how important it is to get value and quality from your investment. I believe that Fairport provides both. I can add that I have worked in a not- for- profit environment where it was important to creatively meet demands that may have exceeded resources. Further, I have the experience of going from a dual to a single income household when I made the decision to be home with my children. Establishing priorities is of the utmost importance. I feel the Fairport District does an excellent job of establishing these priorities. I would like to add my creativity in these matters, and to whatever issues may arise.”

***********

I did edit the e-mails a little as the post is a bit long. I know there may have been some reservations to enter the blogsphere but those of you who know me or have been reading along know that I would not skewer someone who was trying to do the community some good. I will say that I give all five of these folks a great deal of credit. The position is not an easy one and the time investment is not small. Best of luck to all the candidates.

Given the economy and the State of our State there is an upcoming event that gives us a chance to have a say in how some of our money is spent and who makes the decisions on that spending. On May 19th the residents of the Fairport School District will be able to vote on the 2009-2001 school budget, the library budget and for positions on both boards. Now the library board only has 2 candidates and 2 openings, thus they are running unopposed. However, there are 5 school board candidates running for 3 seats on the school board. Nothing like choices.

The five candidates are Robert Beckwith, Denise Dragoone, Thomas McJury, Curtis Moczarski and Kellie Scott-Reed. Mr. Mc Jury is an incumbent member of the board the rest are all first time challengers for the position. Last night I attended a “Meet the Candidates” night at Fairport High School. The meeting was held Town Hall style. Each candidate had three minutes to give a brief biography and outline a little bit about why they are running for the school board. Then the candidates were asked a series of questions and they rotated who would answer the questions first. First answer could either be looked at as the hardest position for obvious reasons or the favorable position. A few times the candidate who answered first saw his/her answer regurgitated in some way by those who followed.

It was obvious that all of the candidates were cautious in giving their answers, not wanting to offend/alienate any segment of voters. What I did pick up on was the body language of the candidates as they responded, that told me more that the actual answers. All of the candidates were well spoken. Some were a little more prepared than others, some more comfortable speaking in public.

So what I am going to do is open up the blog for any of the candidates to use as a forum for their platform. They can e-mail me (if you know one of them let them know) at bandanaman61@gmail.com and I will put it in a future blog. I will also pose a question for them to answer: After sitting in a room with the other candidates and listening to their responses what quality do you have that the others either do not have or do not have to the same degree that you do that puts you over the top and should influence me to vote for you? I have several pages of notes from the meeting but do not want to give any candidate an advantage at this point. BUT if any one of them wants to discuss the answers they gave, we can do that.

I have a good idea who I am voting for but I might be swayed if your platform and answer impresses me.

My wife and I wanted something other than a fish fry Friday evening, so we decided on Chinese take-out. We live practically around the corner from the Egypt fire house, but apparently it’s been a while since we paid any attention to the businesses nearby.

As we pulled onto Route 31 from Mason Road, we realized that McGregor’s was closed. Too bad. We pulled into Town Center Plaza, the shopping center across from the Hess gas station. I’m not sure exactly what the plaza is in the center of, but that’s what it’s called. We remembered hearing that Chung Thai had changed hands, and is now Sak’s Thai Cuisine. Gone is the big fish tank and the option for Chinese food, but they have redecorated very nicely, and they’re now a somewhat more upscale Thai restaurant. It looked so nice that we ate in the restaurant.

The bottle of Thai beer didn’t do much for me, but the food was great, and well presented. We had a “shrimp in a blanket” appetizer and also little crispy pancakes with scallion seasoning. I wasn’t too adventurous for my entree, just a Thai vegetable mix with pork and soy sauce. My wife had a spicier cashew dish with a curry sauce. $50 for the two of us with tip. Highly recommended, even for you 315-ers!BrChGaGrHnIrMnPnPtRoVcWb

Gary Gocek grew up in Liverpool (central NY) and attended RIT (BS in CS). He has lived in or around Fairport for over 20 years. Gary now lives west of the village of Fairport with his wife, two cats and two guitars. He has two young-adult sons who graduated from FHS.

Gary works as a software developer and enjoys his family, music, ethnic heritage activities, church activities and DVDs-by-mail. He maintains family and other websites. After 9/11, he became a news junkie, gathering news from the D&C, TV, radio and the Internet. Gary says blogging is a natural extension, and for the D&C he hopes to "mix typical diary-like blog entries with humorous posts and comments on local politics."